Join us this week as we visit with Steve Lech, historian and docent with the Mission Inn Foundation, to learn about that hotel’s rich history, which dates back more than a century. We’ll also talk with Erin Gettis, Principal Planner and City Historic Preservation Officer for the City of Riverside, about Riverside’s great mid-century modern architecture, and the recent public policy decisions that foster its preservation.

Holiday sale on Esotouric gift certificates (through December 24).

Mission Inn Foundation & Museum website.

Erin Gettis' hosts YouTube tours of historic Riverside sites.

Riverside Modernism Context Statement (PDF file).

Historic preservation in Riverside resource page.

CityLab story on Modesto's modernism.

Modesto Art Museum guide to the city's modern architecture.

Jim Tully, father of hard-boiled fiction story on Off-Ramp, and our 2012 contribution to Tullyfest.

Adrian Scott Fine's (L.A. Conservancy) op-ed on preserving the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.

Barry Day's Raymond Chandler book release event.

January's arson-themed forensic science seminar.

Upcoming Bus Tours

Richard’s Birthday Bus Tour of Public Mausolea

Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown

Eastside Babylon

The Real Black Dahlia

Charles Bukowski’s Haunts of a Dirty Old Man

In A Lonely Place: Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles

Birth of Noir: James M. Cain’s Los Angeles